Irving Picard, the trustee tasked with unwinding Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS), has hit another wall in his efforts to block two big-dollar settlements with companies that once funneled cash into Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi fraud. Picard and his law partners at Baker & Hostetler say the settlements have hindered so-called avoidance actions they’re using to recover funds for Madoff victims.
Affirming U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Friday slapped down Picard’s efforts to block a $80 million class action settlement between Madoff investors and one of the fraudster’s so-called feeder funds, Fairfield Greenwich Ltd. In the same decision, the appeals court rejected arguments by Picard that it should halt a similar $410 million deal between the New York Attorney General’s Office and Madoff pal J. Ezra Merkin. That aspect of the Second Circuit’s ruling affirms a 2013 decision by Marrero’s colleague on the bench, Jed Rakoff.
